Friedrich Benjamin von Lütke

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Portrait by Ivan Kramskoi
By Sergey Zaryanko
By Pyotr Borel, based on a photograph by Andrey Denyer

Friedrich Benjamin Graf

French Academy of Science in Paris
.

Biography

Friedrich came from the Lütke family (ru) of Brandenburgish origin and originated in Jüterbog. Count Lütke's grandfather was Johann Philipp von Lütke, a German Lutheran preacher and writer on physical science and theology. In 1745, Johann went from Germany to Moscow as pastor of a Lutheran parish in order to spread Lutheranism in the Russian Empire. As a youth, Friedrich attended a Lutheran German-speaking school. He remained a practicing Lutheran.[citation needed]

Lütke started his naval career in the

Ferdinand Wrangel.[2] Then from 1821 to 1824, Lütke led the expedition to explore the coastline of Novaya Zemlya, the White Sea, and the eastern parts of the Barents Sea. From August 20, 1826, to August 25, 1829, he headed the world cruise on the Senyavin, sailing from Kronstadt and rounding Cape Horn. At the beginning, he was accompanied from Copenhagen and the Baltic Sea by Capt. Mikhail Nikolaievich Staniukovich who was in command of the sloop Möller. The scientific team included Heinrich von Kittlitz (ornithologist), Karl Heinrich Mertens (botanist) and Alexander Postels (mineralogist).[3]

During this voyage he described the western coastline of the Bering Sea, the Bonin Islands off Japan, and the Carolines, although he discovered only one new island (Eauripik, the expedition is noted for having visited every inhabited island in the Caroline Islands (with the exception of Yap) and for compiling an extensive ethnographic account. In particular, the expedition spent three weeks in the Nomoi Islands, which had been last visited by Pedro Quiros in 1565. The team collected over 8000 plant, animal and mineral samples.[2]

In 1835, Lütke was appointed by Tsar

Russian State Council (Государственный совет in Russian; a legislative entity that predated the Duma, which came into existence only in 1906).[citation needed
]

In 1873, the Russian Geographical Society introduced the Lütke gold medal. A cape, peninsula, mountain and bay in Novaya Zemlya, as well as a group of islands in Franz Josef Land, Baydaratskaya Bay, and the Nordenskiöld Archipelago and a strait between Kamchatka and Karaginsky Island, as well as two Russian icebreakers were named after him.[citation needed]

Nereocystis luetkeana was named after him by Mertens (first as Fucus luetkeanus) and then described by Postels and Ruprecht.[4]

Ships named after Lütke include 1909-built icebreaker, 1970-built icebreaker, and 2017-built Yamalmax LNG carrier.

Baltic Coat of arms book by Carl Arvid von Klingspor in 1882.[5]

Lütke's contribution to the geography of Alaska

During his voyage round the world on the Russian

St. Lawrence Bay by the Bering Strait
.

After finally returning to Kronstadt Litke published a 3-volume account of his explorations with atlases in Russian and in French, the latter being published in Paris and entitled Voyage autour du monde, : exécuté par ordre de sa majesté l’empereur Nicolas Ier, sur la corvette Le Séniavine, dans les années 1826, 1827, 1828 et 1829, par Frédéric Lutké, ... commandant de l’expédition. Partie historique, avec un atlas, litographié d’après les dessins originaux d’Alexandre Postels et du baron Kittlitz. Traduit du russe sur le manuscrit original, sous les yeux de l’auteur, par le conseiller d’état F. Boyé. Tome I–III. Very few copies were printed and especially the Russian original work with its nautical part became an extremely rare item.

The nautical volume contains hydrographic and geographic details on the then little-known Bering Sea and

W. H. Dall published an index for the book, Lütke's name was given as "Lutke", which reflects the spelling under which the book was published in Paris.[6]

Certain geographic features of the Alaskan coast, like the

Aleutians
, were named by Count Lütke in the maps that were subsequently published. The landhead now named
Cape Lutke in Alaska was named after this Russian explorer by the Imperial Russian Hydrographic Service in 1847.[7] The Litke Deep
is named in his honour.

Admiral v. Lütke's manor in Avanduse, present-day Estonia
Bank of Russia
in the denomination of 50 roubles (2015). Russian Geographical Society founded in 1845. F. P. Litke

In the stamps

  • Postage stamp of the USSR, 1947
    USSR
    , 1947
  • Count Lütke's portrait on a 1947 Soviet postage stamp in a series issued to commemorate the centennial of the Russian Geographical Society.
    Count Lütke's portrait on a 1947 Soviet postage stamp in a series issued to commemorate the centennial of the Russian Geographical Society.
  • Postage stamp of the USSR, 1976: Fyodor Litke (1909 icebreaker)
    Postage stamp of the USSR, 1976: Fyodor Litke (1909 icebreaker)
  • F. P. Litke on a Russian postage stamp, 1994
    F. P. Litke on a Russian postage stamp, 1994

See also

References

  1. ^ Regarding personal names: Until 1919, Graf was a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin. In Germany, it has formed part of family names since 1919.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0810853957
    .
  3. Andreas W. Daum
    : German Naturalists in the Pacific around 1800: Entanglement, Autonomy, and a Transnational Culture of Expertise. In: Explorations and Entanglements: Germans in Pacific Worlds from the Early Modern Period to World War I, ed. Hartmut Berghoff et al. New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, pp. 70‒102.
  4. ^ Marine Algae of California
  5. ^ von Klingspor 1882, p. 67.
  6. ^ The Naming of Alaska — Explorers 'L' — ExploreNorth
  7. ^ "Feature Detail Report for: Cape Lutke". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.

External links

Sources

Academic offices
Preceded by President of the Russian Academy of Sciences
1864–1882 		Succeeded by
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